Wellington Pattern Pyramid Has Arrived! Enter to Win!

May 20, 2013May 23, 201347 Comments

I was very lucky to win the Wellington Pattern Pyramid from Laura over at Make it Yourself Mom’s Diary. Laura also gave me a very cute card and some lovely stretch cotton floral print fabric.

Love this Fabric from Laura!

This Pattern Pyramid originated from the Wellington Blogger’s Meetup, in New Zealand, where they met up, exchanged sewing supplies and had many patterns left, with no takers. So, Miss Joie De Vivre at A Charm of Magpies, began this Pyramid. It then made its way to Anne from Pretty Grievances. Next up, the lucky winner was Laurie and Kerrielee from Sew Exhausted who then passed it over to my predecessor, Laura. Now, it’s my turn to pass it along to all of you!

These are the 3 patterns I am taking out: (I was quite thrilled that so many patterns were my size!).

Patterns I am Keeping

There was a sailor style /diaper closure culottes pattern that is so fantastic!! Version C has an inverted pleat at the sides. I can’t wait to make these! And, I’m also helping myself to a yoga collection and a pretty yet simple dress.

And, these are the patterns I will be putting back:

Patterns I am Giving

I have included the Vogue coat that I received in a giveaway from Mari at Disparate Disciplines which caused some definite excitement in this post. But, the pattern is several sizes too big for me, and I am finding Vogue patterns difficult enough without the added stress of having to grade it down. So, instead I thought I’d share it with those who can use it! I also included a stylish Vogue skirt pattern with a yoke and pockets, but yet again, it is too large for me. And, a McCalls blouse pattern that includes 8 different styles.

Bonus Patterns I am Giving

And, here are two Extra Special Bonus patterns that I will also be adding in: Very cute 1970s wrap skirts with pockets. The instructions are in French only and I have labelled them in case the winner does not read french.

Here are the patterns sorted by size:

Small Sizes 6 to 12 (32 to 40) That Threads dress is just beautiful! And the New Look vest is really cute if you disregard the envelope styling. The Butterick pattern includes the dress, jacket and pants.

Medium / Large Sizes 12 to 22 (38 to 48). The Simplicity pattern (top row) actually includes the skirt, top, jacket, pants AND purse! A wardrobe in one. And the Vogue Five Easy Pieces pattern includes zip jacket, top, skirt, dress and yoga pants. An entire outfit. That Simplicity dress / top is the Khaliah Ali Collection.

Mens and Accessories Pattern. Accessories are “one size” and the mens jacket is Size 38.

‘New’ Wellington Pattern Pyramid

The fine print:

Anyone, anywhere can enter the giveaway by posting a comment below by Friday June 7, 2013.
You must have an active blog.
A winner will be randomly selected and contacted. I will then post (mail) the pyramid to you. Kitty is sharpening his claws in preparation for the next draw officiating ceremony!!
The winner will then select a pattern(s) to keep and add a pattern(s) of their own back into the Pyramid. (Adding a pattern is optional, if you add a pattern back in, the pyramid keeps going longer, but it is not compulsory.) The winner will then host their own giveaway on their blog and the cycle continues…

Good Luck to Everybody! And, Happy Sewing.

Also, check out Kitty’s last winning entrant selection from our previous Pattern Pyramid win, Kaitui Kiwi from The Curious Kiwi. She finally received the Pattern Pyramid and has it posted up on her blog, here.

Pattern Pyramid Pick Progess (De-80s-fying). And a Sewing Dare!

March 4, 2013March 5, 201342 Comments

So, to refresh your memories, I had selected the Very Easy Very Vogue 9647 from the winning Pattern Pyramid. There were two main reasons for this; one, it was in my size, two, it was touted as “very easy”.

Now, not sure if you can see from the picture or not, but this pattern is definitely very ’80s. Especially, the incredibly expansive shoulder pads. They are actually large enough to land a plane on! Seriously! And for those of you afraid to fly, picture a Kitty perched on each shoulder and walking around all day like that.

I wanted to try my best to De-80s-fy the pattern (yes, I coined that phrase, please feel free to use it and share).

This is what I came up with to bring it into this century while lancing the shoulder pad design detail: I opted to make the top half of the dress in B (the short sleeves) and the bottom half of the dress in A (the full skirt), while also shortening the dress to about knee-length. I’m using a periwinkle blue cotton voile that has a flower design embossed on it, and is almost sheer where the flowers are embossed. I thought it would be delicate and flowy and deter from that ‘boxy’ look. I then decided to sew an Obi Style belt out of the cotton floral fabric to cinch it at the waist while still keeping that light and airy look (as opposed to using a heavy leather / plastic belt).

So, these are my plans to de-80’s fy, what do you think? In my mind, it looks fabulous! 🙂 In reality, we’ll have to wait and see.

And, I have been charged with a Sewing Dare by Jagoda from FitNottoFit:

“Catja, I don’t know what your plans are for March, but I CHALLENGE you to make something from Ikea fabric. Hopefully something wearable, for yourself, not for the kitties. Do you accept?”

Yes, I accept! Although Kitty is a tad disgruntled. Here is my plan:I love Ikea fabric, but it can be a challenge to sew clothing with it, as it is mainly designed for home sewing projects. I am going to make Butterick B5285 in Version B and use this Ikea fabric pictured. The fabric design is: Malin Akerblom, 2010. The floral print is quite large and I’m hoping that with the addition of the pleats on the skirt, it will look like an abstract floral pattern.

Karen, from Did You Make That? made the same version (B) of the Butterick skirt in a fabulous fabric, check it out here. It looks terrific, so if mine comes out half this well, I will be stoked!

You Spilled Blueberries and Batwings All Over my Knit Tops!

February 21, 2013February 12, 201451 Comments

Still continuing on with the fun of sewing knits. I made the T-shirt pattern from the Craftsy Sewing With Knits course. It actually started out as stark white jersey fabric. Whiter than white can be white. And I thought, “it’s too white”. So, I decided to dye it. In the interest of environmental and health safety, I wanted to use something natural. I have dyed things with tea before, and they came out a lovely sepia tone. But wanted this one to be more colourful. Have you ever been to somebody’s house and everything is completely white? I mean, everything, furniture, pillows, curtains, rugs. Not only does being there make one REALLY nervous, but, what are the two things you pray they don’t serve you? Blueberry juice and red wine!! So, those were the winners for the dyeing process. I sewed up the T-Shirt first, then let it soak for about half an hour in the offending-to-white liquids. Et, voila!! It came out a subtle purple-grey tone. I made the XXS, as I did with the fleece hoodie, but this one was not as roomy. I would make the XS next time. For the next knit top, I drafted my own pattern with instructions from the book, Downtown DIY Sewing by Alice Chadwick. It included a body, cuffs, waistband and interfaced neck facing.I used gridded pattern paper. I could only find paper with the grid in inches and my rulers are in metric, but not a big problem. The grid makes it so much easier to measure and draft, and I highly recommend it! And this was the end result:It is a printed jersey and was my first time using a directional pattern, stripes and a geometric floral band, and it lined up out quite well. The pattern is a dolman / batwing sleeve style, remember those? I was having a twitter conversation with Charlotte from Seamripped and she was working on her own project and asked if the batwing look will come back in style. I said “yes!” and have since found a lot of sites with batwing / dolman sleeve fashions that look quite stylish. I like this shirt as it is a dressed up version of casual. A bit like a fancier, more interesting sweatshirt, with all the comfort maintained. Update: I have since worn this top and the neck facing would periodically turn toward the outside. So, I followed some advice to stitch along the shoulder seams, stitching in the ditch, and through the neck facing. I did this using a triple stretch stitch and it is really helping to hold the neck facing inside the top.